A Bird Blog with Kate St. John

Archive for May, 2011

Rose-breasted grosbeaks are a great example of a sexually dimorphic species — the males and females look quite different.

Shown above is Mr. Grosbeak in his black, white and rose-colored finery.

Below is his mate, Mrs. Grosbeak, in subdued brown and white. Her colors camouflage her at the nest but make her look like a large house finch.
You can tell she’s a grosbeak by her big white eyebrow and the large (“gros”) beak which matches her mate’s in size and shape.

How nice that this pair cooperated by striking the same pose at Marcy’s feeder.

There are plenty of birds to see! As warblers migrate north to Canada they usually stop on the coast of Lake Erie to refuel before crossing the water. The northwestern corner of Ohio becomes a huge birding hotspot.

This attracts birders from around the country and around the world. Many of us will visit the Port Clinton area in the next 10 days, including many Pittsburghers from the Three Rivers Birding Club.

We’ll visit The Boardwalk every morning at Magee Marsh (formerly Crane Creek Park). There in a copse of trees the warblers are so close you can practically touch them and the birders are so thick you meet old friends at every turn.

If you’re even mildly interested, it’s worth the trip. Click on the photo of the magnolia warbler to read more about the Biggest Week in American Birding.

Last Friday a webcam observer remarked on the Aviary’s Facebook page, “The female just flew off the nest with a dead chick. Only two are left in the nest now.”

The Aviary sent me the news right away but I was away from email on Friday and didn’t find out until evening. I checked both nests immediately. Gulf obviously had five babies. At Pitt I could only count four but it was hard to see because of the camera angle. One thing was certain. Both nests had more than two chicks.

Saturday morning I still saw only four chicks at the Cathedral of Learning so over the weekend I asked a small group of avid webcam and fledge watchers, “Can you see five chicks at Pitt?”

None of us could reliably see five but none of us were sure. By this morning I was still seeing only four so I asked my friends to check the video archives.

Thanks to Donna Memon and Jennie Barker we now have photos showing that one of the adults (looks like E2) removed a dead chick from the nest around 2:30pm on Friday April 29. Here he examines it one last time. Earlier snapshots indicate it died overnight April 28- April 29 because it was dead at the 6:16am feeding.

Alas, these things happen. Sometimes we like it. Sometimes we don’t.

p.s. Thanks to Friday’s sharp-eyed observer we knew that we ought to check the cameras. To see video of this activity, watch the Cathedral of Learning Archive video called “E2 removes the dead chick.”

If you haven’t seen this photo that Steve Gosser posted on his Facebook page, here’s an “Awwwwww” moment.

This is a pair of great-horned owl chicks that Steve, Cris Hamilton and Bobby Greene saw in Harrison Hills on Saturday.

Great horned owls nest earlier than any other bird in western Pennsylvania. As a result, the young can walk away from the nest by the first of May. They can’t fly yet. They’re in the “branching” phase, similar to ledge-walking in young peregrines.

Cute as these two look, don’t mess with them. Their parents are nearby, watching, and will attack if you threaten their young.